{"id":4057,"date":"2012-04-09T10:30:11","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4057"},"modified":"2012-04-09T10:32:19","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T16:32:19","slug":"reporters-miss-the-religion-story-and-their-readers-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4057","title":{"rendered":"Reporters Miss the Religion Story and Their Readers Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

We rightly complain that Pagan matters are poorly or perfunctorily covered in the news media. Jason Pitzl-Waters writes many blog posts<\/a> sorting through news coverage and pointing out its failings (and occasional successes).<\/p>\n

But the problem is bigger than us. Even the the major world religions’ roles in the news are overlooked or misunderstood by reporters whose frequent secular bias and lack of education leads them to disdain religious issues. How often, for example, does coverage of the incipient civil war in Syria mention that it falls right along the Sunni-Shiite Muslim divide?<\/p>\n

In a blog post titled “Don’t Know Much about Theology<\/a>,” Walter Russell Mead makes what should be the obvious point.<\/p>\n

Even where religion isn\u2019t driving conflict, it plays a powerful role in the way people understand their own personal identities and life stories and in the way they interpret world events. Turkey, Iran, Israel, India, Pakistan, Nigeria: in these countries and in many others, it is impossible to understand contemporary politics without a deep feel for the religious identities and traditions that shape the way the people of these countries perceive and interpret political and historical realities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of news stories are missed or misunderstood, he says, and he’s right. It’s worth reading the whole thing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Stop in at Get Religion<\/em><\/a> for daily coverage on how the news “professionals” mangle or miss the religious element in the news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We rightly complain that Pagan matters are poorly or perfunctorily covered in the news media. Jason Pitzl-Waters writes many blog posts sorting through news coverage and pointing out its failings (and occasional successes). But the problem is bigger than us. Even the the major world religions’ roles in the news are overlooked or misunderstood by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-4057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-journalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-13r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5325,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5325","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":0},"title":"Sarah Pike on Witchcraft and American Religion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Religious studies professor Sarah Pike, author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community and New Age and Neopagan Religions in America discusses her work at the Religion and American History blog. In a chapter I wrote recently on \u201cWicca in the News\u201d about changing representations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1466,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1466","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":1},"title":"Photographer, Journalist: Is it a Career?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A New York Times media-section piece suggests that \"professional photographer\" is a poor career choice if you are just starting out. Since graduation in 2008, Mr. Eich, 23, has gotten magazine assignments here and there, but \u201cindustrywide, the sentiment now, at least among my peers, is that this is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":157,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=157","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":2},"title":"Why do they always take\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Why do they always take her picture? Pagans are not the only ones complaining how certain flamboyant figures (example or example) get media attention whether they are \"representative of the community\" or not. Religion-beat journalist John Dart (April 1 entry) shows that that complaint is heard in other religions as\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3698,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3698","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":3},"title":"Learning about Pagans for the Purpose of Converting Them","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, I answered some questions from a reporter for a Christian news site. He had such response that now he is on the Pagan beat. So I give you \"A Peek at Modern Paganism, Part One\" and \"Part Two.\" Soon \u2014 wait for it \u2014 you meet that reliable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4617,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4617","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":4},"title":"Distrust of Mainstream Media Grows, and That Is a Good Thing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It is now 22 years since I worked as a journalist, and about four years since I last taught a class that was cross-listed with the university's Department of Mass Communications. I had six years in daily newspapers \u2014 not a career, but enough to learn the ropes \u2014 plus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1238,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1238","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Pagans and News Media Coverage","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I noticed a couple of instances in the past month where Colorado Pagans seem to be getting fairer coverage in the news. One was the item about the Pagan Student Alliance at the University of Colorado-Boulder.(But as a former university professor, I have seen clubs come and go. Only clubs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4059,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions\/4059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}